I fixed the problem with the shawl project, and moved forward to re-establish the pattern sequence. So… YAY for Ray.
Last night the new yarns arrived — Phydlbitz Sock and a new-to-me yarn — a blend of 45% Baby Alpaca, 40% Merino, and 15% Cultivated Silk, a luxury sport weight yarn offering ~245 yards per 4oz skein.
Today, I’m going to be pulling hanks to make sets! I saw this image being shared on Facebook, with the caption “Banded Broadbill in Kaeng Krachan National Park, Thailand. Photo by Carl-Johan Svensson”.

There are many colors involved here. My first inclination was to make a variegated yarn with all the colors, but (as Jill suggested) I think I’ll go with sets of quarter-length hanks. Some of the colors are clearly distinct, but others are gradient fades. I’m not sure (yet) how I will divide the dyes, or even whether I will make different length minis in proportion to the colors on the bird, or just go with equal length minis.
Anyway, that’s all I will (likely) be dyeing today, in order to keep this separate from the regular Phydlbitz collection that I can do tomorrow. If there is enough time this afternoon, I may do the regular Phydlbitz later today as well.
And next week I get to do the new luxury sport wt. yarn.